Gondwanaland

Many of you will already know that here Gondwanaland represents the supercontinent of 200 million years ago, Africa, India, Australasia and Antarctica.

Few standing trees remained on this site after the 1987 storm, and there were huge heaps of silt from the dredging of the lower lake. This silt was used in 1999 to create an undulating landscape of low mounds and planting started with 200 eucalyptus trees being introduced to form a structure and background for future planting, alongside the Nothofagus (Southern Beech) already sheltering the western edge of the site.

Since then the area has been substantially enlarged from 6 acres to 10 acres and we are gradually planting more species which had their origins in the lost continent. Earlier this year considerable numbers of Cortaderia richardii (Toe Toe), a beautiful, densely tufted grass from New Zealand were added.

This is the area where our grove of Wollemi Pine has been planted. The first one was planted in October by our Patron, Professor Stephen Hopper, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Since then we have continued planting and by the end of the summer we will have just over 80 trees, making us the largest grove in the United Kingdom.